Wednesday, June 25, 2008

About George Carlin

He was in a way, a sort of H.L. Mencken for our age. Guess we would disagree on many points, but I can still respect him.

In his later years much of Carlin's material wasn't particularly funny; in fact some of it was downright mean. Only he knew why he got like that I guess. To me though? Majority of human cases we should as our hearts allow, let a man's failings pass with him and remember something good.

George was a really funny guy when he was younger. Sure, as he grew older he morphed from comedian into a self-styled observer of culture. Such observers often don't have the value they assign themselves, and they're not correct as much as they think, but still? I will miss funny George. Heck, I started missing him 10 years ago.

Friday, June 13, 2008

Father's Day

Barring some breakthrough in biology (which I'm sure someone is working on right now) everybody has a father. A distinction there is our level of access to that father. Hate it when shallow minds address deep topics, but here I go anyway.

Expand the meaning of "level of access." It really means more than Dad is passed away, or Dad's in prison for life and that's a good thing, or Dad was last seen in the family station wagon with a Hooters waitress, crossing the Mexican border.

Your father can live right next door to you, and you still may have no access to him. Some fathers are cold and emotionally distant, while others are just too busy with their stuff to be accessible.

My dad passed when I was ten, yet I've never once felt lack of access, all these years. No man gets to choose his father, but all get to choose what kind of father they are. Just my opinion, but "high-access" father is the best way to go, though it's hard work. Such fathers deserve a day of honor; the rest deserve a swift kick in the arse.